First off, I don't think a UHD drive adds $50. I'm going to say it's probably closer to $15. If so, then the whole profiteering by deletion of features theory goes right out the window. Rather than debate it (honestly, it doesn't matter to me), I'm more than happy to wait and see the iFixit or iSupply BoM break down when they publish them.
Either Sony was shaving costs down to the bare minimum and shifting that BoM budget into what matters most for games, the performance hardware specs (GPU and other logic board upgrades), or they are simply continuing to push the PS4 as a gaming platform, first and foremost.
I think it could also signal a lack of interest in continuing to push retail optical formats like 4K BD, or at least to the degree that they're not trying to push a new standard as was the case for the PS3 and BD, which helped BD as a format but to the initial detriment of the PS3 as a gaming platform because back in the mid 2000s, BD diodes were a costly commodity, which was reflected in the price of the PS3.
Based upon MS' current XBO marketing campaign, which will become more evident as we roll into the holidays, MS is using UHD as their key bullet point feature to distinguish their hardware's advantage over the PS4.
From a consumer standpoint, do you pay $399 for about 2x (more? someone feel free to chime in because I'm not going to compare 4.2 tFLOPs to whatever the XBO S produces) gaming performance, or do you pay $349 for less than half the processing power and 4K BD playback? That's just hardware we're talking about, services and game catalogs are a separate discussion for the purpose of discussing hardware specs.
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